Tabb High School girls’ volleyball standout Briana Macias will play at the next level at the University of Mount Olive.

It was a strong year for Macias and the Tabb girls’ volleyball team. After a strong senior campaign, Macias chosen to attend the University of Mount Olive, an NCAA Division II school in North Carolina.

Macias said her recruiting process was a little rough because she started late in the process, but it started to turn around once she got the ball rolling. She eventually started to reach out to different schools, going over her options, and decided that Mount Olive was going to be best.

“I was hesitating to reach out to colleges at first,” Macias said. “After I gained some confidence, I started working with my parents and my recruiting coordinator to reach out to coaches and stuff, and once I did that, it was pretty much smooth sailing after.”

Macias loves the atmosphere Mount Olive provides. She was hoping to end up in North Carolina so that she wasn’t too far away from her family. She has a good relationship with the coach and believes the team has a promising future. The Lady Trojans finished with an 8-16 record last fall, and Macias hopes to come in and be able to contribute right away. With a new coach in the program, Macias is looking forward to building trust with her coaches.

The Lady Tigers won more than 20 games this season. She was an All-District, All-Region and an All-State selection this season. They made it to the Class 3 state championship for the second year in a row but fell short. She felt good about her season and what she and her teammates were able to accomplish.

“I felt like the season went really well,” she said. “Of course, losing the state game for the second straight year was heartbreaking, but even being a finalist is something to be proud of. We went through some adversity throughout the season, but in the end, we all proved that we wanted to keep our season going.”

One of Macias’s favorite games from this season was against Poquoson High School at home, because of the intensity of the game and amazing support the team got from the student section.